4/25/08

Columbus Dispatch

Jennifer Smith Richards and Simone Sebastian

Graduation rates slipped last year in about half of central Ohio’s 49 school districts, although most remain higher than they were three years ago.

Columbus was among those whose rates slid, breaking its six-year streak of improvement. Its rate rose from 54.8 percent for the Class of 2001 to 72.9 percent for the Class of 2006. But last year’s graduation rate dropped to 70.6 percent.

Superintendent Gene Harris said students had trouble passing certain sections of the Ohio Graduation Test. The Class of 2007 was the first required to pass the test to earn a diploma.

“We know our students were challenged by science and math,” said Harris, who has led the district since the 2001-02 school year.

Students first took the OGT as sophomores and had seven chances to pass all five sections of the exam.

Stan Heffner, the state associate superintendent of curriculum and assessment, said it’s possible that some high schools’ rates were affected by the harder exam, which replaced a proficiency test given in the ninth grade. But, for the most part, there weren’t huge swings this year, he said.

The reason for declines “could be any number of other factors. Who moved in, who moved out. The overall student population, did you end up with a greater, lesser or equal number of students with disabilities,” he said. “Overall, we can take pride that the state has responded.”

Statewide, the rate inched up from 86.1 percent to 86.9 percent. It generally has been on the rise since 1997. Harris said that she still expects Columbus schools to meet her goal of reaching the state’s 90 percent graduation standard by 2010.

“While we have some level of disappointment … this is no excuse,” she said. “We will not be deterred by this.”

Ohio’s graduation rates are part of the school report cards released in August, but those rates lag one year behind because summer graduates are still being counted. The 2006-07 rates, which were released by the Ohio Department of Education yesterday, will appear on the next report cards.

Some central Ohio districts, such as Delaware, Groveport Madison, Lancaster and South-Western, made enough progress to meet the 90 percent standard. The Licking County district of Heath made the largest gain, moving its rate 9 points to 99.1 percent.

Central Ohio’s second-largest district, South-Western schools, met its goal of improving its rate by at least 2 percentage points. The district climbed 3.6 points to 90 percent for the Class of 2007.

In recent years, South-Western created a night school that helps high-school students catch up, started offering summer help for students who are struggling to pass the graduation test and began tracking students who withdrew to more accurately count its dropouts.

“Now (the count) is more accurate and reflective of what’s actually happening here with our students,” said Lois Rapp, assistant superintendent of curriculum.

The state plans to begin using a new, more accurate way to calculate graduation rates that likely will cause rates to drop, starting with the Class of 2008. (Read previous story about this subject.)

Right now, the state makes no distinction between on-time graduates and students who take five years to earn a diploma. But Ohio and other states will start making that distinction and count graduates only as those who complete high school in four years.